My 3 novels: "The Story of S___;" "When Alice Met Her Favorite Movie Star in an Elevator," and "The Pop Star and the Child Prodigy." All 3 deal with aspects of autism spectrum disorders, tho the third doesn't mention that explicitly. All are e-books. The first 2 R also on paper. This blog has essays and poetry. My twitter: @AnnalisseMayer; Goodreads: https://lnkd.in/dfiqRxG; Linkedin: http://tinyurl.com/pz9x93u NB: Annalisse Mayer is a pseudonym

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Melatonin dosages

Studies have shown that the average 20 year old, who sleeps well, produces 75 micrograms of melatonin a day. Accordingly, we must conclude that this amount, though tiny, is all the body needs.

By contrast, the lowest quantity available for sale in pill form is 1 milligram. In order to get the correct amount of melatonin from such a pill, one would have to cut it into thirteenths. For those who don't know, there are one thousand micrograms in a milligram. A microgram is almost unimaginably tiny.

People think that more melatonin is better. This is not so. When I take more than the required amount of melatonin, I get nightmares, which does not help my sleep.

People find that larger quantities don't work, so they ask for even larger quantities. I just saw some 10 milligram melatonin pills. The more melatonin people take, the less well that melatonin going to work for the purpose of sleep. The larger the doses sold, the more likely there will turn out to be side effects. The more side effects there are, the more likely it is that this important supplement will be taken off the market entirely.

This is a vicious cycle. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Increasing the dosage does not work. Dosage needs to be *decreased*.

There used to be 200 microgram tablets, which one could cut in half to get approximately the right dose, but those have been taken off the market.

I don't get the feeling that anyone actually reads this blog. I wish I could get someone's attention. I want my 200 microgram tablets back. If everyone got those and cut them in half, as I used to, then they would sleep better.

What bothers me particularly about this is that I really *need* melatonin to sleep, but only small quantities. As the pills get larger and larger, it's hard for me to get what I need. Plus the side effects of larger doses are making it more likely that the substance will be banned as a nutritional supplement and not be available to me.